


Someone to Believe in

by kunnskat



Category: Fairy Tail, One Piece
Genre: Ace Lives, Celestial Spirits - Freeform, Gen, Team Erza, sibling bonds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-02 06:23:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11503593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kunnskat/pseuds/kunnskat
Summary: It's very common for the team to get into the most ridiculous situations, so there's not really much of a surprise when they do it again. Terror and determination and hope, sure, but that's also standard.What's less often, though it's happened before, is the traveling through worlds or being unable to use magic in them. Lucy is probably not the best to have ended up going there in that case, she's lonely without her spirit friends, but she manages, knowing she'll see them again when she gets home.ORLucy allows curiosity to guide her and falls into a world of pirates, marines and revolutionaries, though not necessarily in that order. Somewhere along the way she's got herself a set of brothers she's willing to believe in like she believes in Fairy Tail, but all good things must end.





	Someone to Believe in

It's to be expected that something go wrong, what with their entire team going on this mission, there's always something that happens like their enemies attacking and a fight ruining some buildings and what not. Many missions are even worse on the scale of destruction, but Lucy can't help but want them with her anyway. 

So when their enemies don't jump them as they leave the home of their contractor or even the first two days after, it leaves them all waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Lucy figures it'll happen soon, when they reach the city they'd been spotted in last, but there is nothing. They decide they won't be jumped for the day when it starts to get dark, so she takes advantage of it and drags them to the library in town, hoping to find at least something on the magic they'd been warned that the people they need to capture could utilize, telling them, "we've got to know and you wouldn't let me come to the hotel on my own later, anyway, so we might as well go together, right?" 

Sure, they might get bored, but at least they'll be bored with her, and together if they're wrong about being attacked, Erza reasons as she drags Gray and Natsu after the rest of them, Wendy smiling nervously and Carla and Happy right behind her. 

They're all expecting something to go wrong, it shouldn't be a surprise when Wendy yelps, starting to sink into the floor. 

"Wendy!" Carla isn't the only shouting, but she's the first to reach her and take her arm, trying to drag her up from the hole. She doesn't succeed until Erza grasps the same arm, yanking her up while everyone else is looking around them to figure out what happened. 

"That hole looks human made," Lucy tells them, one of her keys held out and Virgo appearing in front of her, "--Virgo, could you check out if there's anyone underneath us, someone just tried to drag Wendy down."

"Of course, Princess," Virgo nods seriously, drilling down into the ground and making a wider hole. 

"Thanks," she calls down and turns her attention back to the rest of the group, "anything? Erza?"

Erza shakes her head, still looking around them, "I don't think there's anyone here, we'll have to wait and see what Virgo finds." 

Natsu growls at that, "we'll find them and then we'll beat them up," and Gray only nods, with Happy calling out his usual, "aye!"

Carla is stlll clinging to Wendy, who is held in place by Erza as if the redhead has to keep her exactly there to keep her safe. Neither of them are complaining, though, and Lucy gets it. Erza is safety, there's something about just standing next to her that makes one feel as if nothing could touch them. She tries to smile gently at them all, but she thinks her worry shines through. 

Virgo reports a tunnel, so they decide to go down there. Well, Natsu jumps right in and they decide they'd better follow before he does something stupid, but it's pretty much the same. Erza would've gone down first if not Natsu. 

Lucy would rather not break a leg or something, going down, and Happy's already down there, Carla flying Wendy down, so she waits until last and then Virgo brings her down. It's a dirt tunnel, that they land in, but there's signs of recent people having been there. While they start spreading out a little, only so far that they can all hear each other, Lucy looks on the ground to figure out if there's any prints left and spots something else.

"What's this?" Lucy mumbles to herself, kneeling to pick up whatever it is that glints so in the light filtering through the hole they'd gone down through. It's a little resistant, but with some tugging, it loosens and she falls flat on her butt. Wincing, she ignores the dirt, keeping her attention on what's revealed-- a book with no title, no author on the spine, no description in the back, just a bright blue book with a golden frame. 

"Guys," she calls, flipping it open to check if anything inside will tell what it is that she's found, and then there's a lurch in her stomach, and she drops the book between her knees, gasping as she wraps her arms around herself for reasons she can't figure out until Happy's calling "Lucy!" in a panic as he flies towards her-- no, right through her.

She's fading, somehow, she can see herself disappear when she looks at her legs. 

Everyone is returning to the hole, to her, but she finds herself doubting that there is anything they can do to fix this. She's not sure she can, and she's the one who'd opened the book-- and oh, "don't look into the book! You can touch it but don't look inside," she warns quickly, desperate that they don't make the same mistake. 

"I'll work on it wherever I end up but bring me back, okay? Bring me back without following."

She's terrified of what's happening, but she's got to be brave. For Happy, who is crying and saying she can't leave. For Wendy, who looks horrified and is trying to figure out what's causing this. For Carla, who is panicking over who to get first. For Erza, who is trying desperately to figure out what kind of magic it is that's doing this. For Gray, who is trying to physically keep her there with his own arms. For Natsu, who promises that they'll find her and bring her home. She's got to be brave so that they can be, too. 

Lucy smiles softly at her friends, nods once, "I trust you. I'll see you all again, soon." 

And then they, and the library around them, is fading from her view. 

\--

The first thing she sees is a forest, so of course she makes the choice to climb one of the stronger trees to see where she is and where she needs to go. Or at least figure out if she's anywhere she's been before. 

No such luck, of course, because she's sure their team is cursed, and that if she hadn't been as unlucky Lucy, she would be after always going on missions with them. 

What she does spot, though, is a town, and past it a large, wide ocean. And on the other side, there's a mountain which she's not sure she'd dare climbing even with her friends there. Her best bet is the town, of course, if only so she can find a guide for whatever trails might be around the mountain, if it turns out that's the way she needs to go to get home. 

Climbing carefully down, she reaches to her side, hands grasping around the keys at her hip, biting her lip as she tries to decide who would be best to summon -- Virgo, maybe? No, she doesn't want to disturb her when she doesn't need her, but. Loke? No, no, she remembers Aries had plans for him, she can't take him away from that today, but then. Maybe Plue would like to keep her company. 

Smiling, she takes the key out and recites the summoning, waiting for someone familiar. 

There is no Plue appearing. 

Lucy frowns, worried, and tries again. And then with Crux, when nothing happens. And then Cancer. And then she goes through the whole set, but there's no friends appearing and there's no connection to be felt. There's no magic leaving her to sustain them. There's just emptiness. 

Scared, she tries once more, but gets nothing, and as she falls to her knees, Lucy stares at her keys, mind racing to figure out what has happened. The only possibility she has is that something is blocking it, a bit like in the other dimension where she'd had to eat a pill to use magic. 

Lucy doesn't know how long she spends trying to reach the friends she'd thought she'd still have no matter what, only that it's cold when she does snap out of it, and realizes that in order to get them back, she's going to have to find a way home, and to do that, she's got to get moving. She's got to start walking towards that town she'd spotted, somehow she's got to figure it out on her own until her team finds her. 

They'd promised.

\--

This might require some fighting, which she's not sure she can pull of on her own, and she wishes her team were there with her, if only so she wouldn't be all alone in this mess.

A hand grasps hers and drags her away, forcing her to turn a corner, then two more, then run through an alley, and she tries to pay further attention to their surroundings after that, but she can't help but look at her rescuer instead. A man wearing a tall top-hat, and he's blond like she is, but she can't see his face so she's still a bit wary despite him helping her out. 

They don't stop running until they can no longer hear their shouting pursuers, and they're hidden between trees, so when he lets her catch her breath, she does so while leaning against one of the sturdier looking trees. 

"That was close," he cheerfully tells her, and she throws him an incredulous look. 

"Why do you sound so happy?" 

"Oh, I just saved a very pretty lady," and Lucy's not sure if she should laugh or call him a pervert or just ignore it. "What's not to be happy about?"

"How about the fact that they were genuinely trying to kill us?" 

He shrugs, and she closes her eyes, trying to figure out why her current feelings of exasperation is so familiar to her, before it hits her that this is exactly the kind of situation she'd gotten used to with her Guild. 

It figures that the first person she'd properly meet, and she hasn't even at that yet, would be someone just like her friends. 

"I'm Lucy, and I'd like very much to know what is going on, here," she introduces herself and reaching her hand out to shake his, determined to get even something resembling to order back in her life. New world or not. 

"Sabo," he returns, taking her hand and bowing over it to kiss it, just like Loke, which is probably the main reason she doesn't give him a disgusted or annoyed expression or a Lucy Kick. 

"And I'm not sure, but they looked like they were aiming for you."

It doesn't make the slightest sense, she knows she hadn't done anything wrong. She hadn't even spoken to them before they'd decided they were arresting her, and Lucy's well aware that getting arrested means that if you've been framed for a crime, you won't get to prove yourself innocent. She couldn't have that. 

"What-- I don't know why they would, I didn't even do anything."

"...where did you find that?" 

Looking at where his gaze has landed, she blinks at the reminder that she's still got that 'treasure', and she lifts it up from her shoulder-bag, showing it to him, "this, you mean? What about it?" 

"It's a devil fruit!" He says loudly, wincing at his own volume and looking around to make sure someone hadn't heard him. "That's got to be why they were after you."

"What do they do that makes them so special?" Lucy puzzles over the large fruit, determined to figure it out somehow, if everyone's so eager to get to it that they'd do almost anything for it. There's got to be something other than the taste, right? Are they addictive, is it one of a kind? There are so many questions that she has about this world that she might as well start with something someone can answer right now. 

And Sabo looks like he can, with the wide eyes filled with recognition at the sight of the fruit. 

"That's-- that's a devil fruit," he stutters, repeating the uncommon term, at her, but it's not really answering any of her questions. Other than naming the fruit, and really, who names anything edible something so dark? It's like saying it's a rare poison, which-- well, that'd make some sense, wouldn't it? Maybe it is incurable? 

"What's a devil fruit, exactly, what does it do and why is it named like that?" and there his wide eyes are turned towards her rather than the fruit, until understanding seems to hit him. 

"You really don't know, do you? This is one of the most sought after things in all the seas. They grant you power if you eat them, though you can only eat one, or it'll kill you," he's warning her like he thinks she must have eaten one and is trying to tell her to not eat this one. She's pretty sure she hasn't, so she thinks she'll be good even if she does, but now she's wondering if she should've eaten it from the start, it might have helped her out earlier. 

"Well, what sort of powers? Are there many other drawbacks than only getting to eat one?" she might still eat it, it sounds like it can benefit her at least a little. Keep her alive until she can go home. 

He takes off his hat and drags a hand through his hair, "this is going to take a while. Listen, lets get out of here to somewhere I don't have to worry if the Marines will spot us, yeah? And then I'll tell you everything." 

\--

She can't do it. 

Holding the fruit out to him, she smiles slightly, "in that case I don't want it. If you want, you can have it, but I can't eat this." 

For once it looks like he's the one doubting her sanity instead of the other way around, and he doesn't reach out to take it from her, but instead questions her out loud, which is daring of him considering he'd taken a while to get over her Lucy Punch, "are you sure about that? This could be what saves you, one day, there's a lot of strong people out there to be wary of." 

"It's alright. I'll just figure something out otherwise, but I can't eat something that won't let me swim anymore, even if it's just seawater," she insists, understanding that this is a big thing, here, but entirely unwilling to give up her ability to be in seawater. Because what if she finds a way home and it's the same, there? How'll she be able to summon Aquarius and look her in the eye, knowing she'd traded up being in her element for something that might not do much for her?

She just can't make that trade.

He's reluctant to take it, but Lucy smiles and instead offers another trade, "how about this, help me find some place with information that might help me get home and you can have it."

He spends some time obviously thinking about it, and she waits him out, patience reborn into human skin, before he snaps his fingers together to get her attention. 

"Alright," he nods decisively. "So we're going to pretend to be siblings visiting family on the next island over. We'll say we ran afoul of a whirlpool, which is why we need a new boat. They're going to be looking for us separately for the most part, I don't think they really saw who I was when helping you, so if I hide the hat and coat and you put on something else, we should be fine."

"...I don't actually have anything else," Lucy finds herself forced to admit, a little embarrassed, and he's really looking at her now, surprised. 

"Wait, you have a devils fruit but no extra clothes? You-- where did you even find it?"

"Treasure chest," she shrugs, looking away from him. "Hidden in the forest. I figured it was some old treasure, with the way it had vines growing over it, and that no one would miss it, so I thought it'd be okay to have a look. I wasn't expecting anything edible."

"I'll take care of it, then. Consider it proper payback for the fruit, it's way more expensive than just a trip wherever you need to go," he waves her off, clearly aware she'd been about to protest. But really, if she thinks about it, it's the best way to get out of there without any trouble, much better than fighting their way off the island like her team would've done in a heartbeat.

\--

"This is our sister, Lucy," Luffy says last when she comes up on deck, apparently introducing her to his older brother that had shown up out of the blue, from what Nami is hissing in her ear, reminding her of stories Luffy had told her of jungles and bandits and brothers. "She's from another world and she's really nice and polite and happy, but sometimes reckless or sad, and other times she's fun and mean and scolds me a lot."

"Luffy," she frowns at him, not sure if she's more exasperated at his introduction of her, or embarrassed. Maybe it's a little bit of both. His older brother is smiling, though, as he tips his hat at her and introduces himself as, "Portgas, D. Ace," so she smiles wryly back, because Luffy's a lost cause and it's already done anyway. 

"Good, if I remember right, you've always been a trouble magnet. There's really no need for you to go looking for it," Ace's pointed comment reminds her of her own from earlier that day and she no longer wonders why Luffy's hopeless, he's used to someone being there. If that's the case, she supposes she can do that, at least for while she's here, stuck in this world. She likes Luffy, helping him become Pirate King seems like something she should do before she goes. And she owes him, anyway. 

"So she's just like us," Luffy decides, very obviously not getting it, but in a surprising move, picking up on something none of them had before now, by the look of everyone's faces. Or maybe it's just that they are starting to wonder a bit more about Ace as a person, if she's just like them and not just Luffy and the crew or something along those lines, like she'd expected to get compared to if anything. Nami, maybe, except Nami is a genius at navigating while Lucy isn't.

"Oh, I give up," she bemoans her apparent fate of being surrounded by people just like Natsu while Luffy laughs. It's Fairy Tail all over again. 

Not that she genuinely minds, she'd realised it rather early during her time with them. It's nostalgic to watch Zoro cower from Nami like the boys had from Erza, and watch Sanji swoon like Juvia had over Gray, except he's got no preference of who as long as it's a pretty woman, like Loke had when she'd first met him-- 

She misses them. Loke, Virgo, Aquarius, and the list goes on. All of her spirits, she wants to see them again, them and her home. Her Fairy Tail. 

Luffy has promised her to help her find her way home, because that's her dream like his is to be the Pirate King, and Lucy believes in him. In him and this crew, her friends far from home. This goof of a Captain that risks his life over and over for his nakama, even for her. 

"Come on, Lucy," Ace wraps an arm around her shoulders and drags her not only from her thoughts but also the outskirts of the group and more into the middle. "I want to get to know my new sister, and you should tell me all about our brother and the trouble he's gotten into while I've been gone."

Ace is like Gray and Luffy is like Natsu, she decides. Exactly like them, which makes it so easy to fit into this sibling thing Luffy has declared. Just like Natsu would've, if he had ever thought that he'd want siblings. And Ace goes along with it between ribbing Luffy, just as Gray would have, and she finds herself going between laughing and scolding them both. And if her eyes go a little shiny, well, everyone pretends not to notice. Except they're a little more attentive to her, a little more gentle, a little more teasing. 

She loves it. It'll be almost a shame to say goodbye, but like Luffy keeps saying, they're always going to be siblings even if they're apart. 

And one day they'll meet again, he promises, after he's become Pirate King, after his crew has fulfilled their dreams, they'll come visit her. Often, Sanji adds with a rose held her way, and that reminds her of Hibiki and the Trimen and all of their friends even outside of the guild. 

She smiles more than she'd thought she would when she'd realized she couldn't reach anyone she knew, none of her friends and family. She'd thought she was all alone, that she'd have to make it on her own for once, but then she'd met Sabo who had led her, maybe indirectly, to Luffy and from there she'd gained new friends and even another brother. She'd always wanted siblings when she was young and she'd thought she'd only have it in Fairy Tail and she'd been content with that. 

This, though, this is new and perfect and she wants to keep it just as much as she wants to go home.

Luffy doesn't lie, there's got to be a way.

\--

Lucy reacts on what must be instinct, her body throwing itself in between Ace and Luffy and the fate awaiting them entirely without her permission. Which would have been granted in a heartbeat, even if she'd known what she'd do before she did it. 

The moment between when she first moves and the pain she's expecting feels like an eternity where she's moving so slow that she's almost sure she won't make it. She's almost sure she's going to lose one or both of them and then that Marine will turn on her and end her, too, except there will be no one left here that cares enough about her to do for her what she's trying to do for them. 

Every step feels too short, every breath hurts, every heartbeat quicker than must be safe. 

And then there's unimaginable pain. 

She thinks she's going to die. She's going to die and she'll never get to see any of her families again. Not her nakama within the Straw Hat Pirates nor the Fairy Tail Mages of her own world. She didn't get to say goodbye to any of them, and the last thing they'll remember of her is fear. 

The fear she'd felt upon realizing she couldn't control the magic that had brought her here to this world. The fear she'd felt when that man had sent her flying somewhere after she'd been left thinking he vaporized the crew entirely, leaving two survivors behind. The fear she feels now at never getting to see any of them again, of only getting to say goodbye to her two brothers. 

It's alright, though. She knows time will heal all wounds, she's sure they'll all continue on to complete their dreams because they know that's what she'd want, if she could have asked anything of them. She doesn't mind dying to protect her brothers, if it means they can go on to reach their dreams. 

Dying for someone you believe in isn't so bad. 

Only, she's not dead. 

She's not dead and it hurts. It hurts so much that every breath she takes makes her want to sob from it. 

There's a stinging sensation around her shoulders, but it fades quickly until she's only vaguely aware that it's there, and trembling breaths sound in her ear, a pleading, "Lucy," following, revealing Luffy to be the one holding her. No wonder she's not laying on the ground. 

She blinks, as something covers her back, head tilting just so that she can look up at Luffy, and she flinches at the pained expression on his face, the mixture of emotions she'd never thought, never wanted, to see on his face. 

A cry of rage distracts him for a second, a familiar voice sounding so broken that it's not just Luffy's wide and frightened eyes turning to look upwards that has her following his gaze, finding Ace to be the source of it. 

And oh, the look on Ace's face mirrors Luffy's so perfectly. 

"Luffy... Ace..." Her voice grows a little stronger as she goes on, knows she'll need to make herself heard the little time she's got left. 

There's no medical miracles here, not for her who opposes the Government. They're not like they are in Fiore, here, they won't ever help the enemy, not even to make sure she lives for some trial or whatever. This is her trial and she's been judged guilty by association, at best. 

"Don't... Don't die... Please," she begs, she knows they need to run, that there's no safety for them here, that if they give into rage and pain and all things bad, they won't make it off this island, they'll die here with her. If she's got to beg them to go as her last wish, she'll do it. "You've-- you've got to... to meet my friends. Meet Fairy Tail. For me. The both of you-- please."

Luffy's crying, he's not even paying attention to the battlefield and Ace-- Ace has faltered from attacking the man that had done this to her. He's left him to their comrades, and he's listening to her, his expression reminding her of the pain she'd seen in the mirror after the loss of her mother. 

She can't do more than this for them, "--they've got to know... I was happy here... With my brothers... I... I'm happy that-- that my brothers are alive... So don't-- don't die, please..."

Her vision blurs a bit, but that's alright, because they're both holding her now, both promising to live because it's all she's asking of them, live to meet her other family. They'll no doubt complete their dreams on the way. She doesn't say goodbye, this is not a goodbye. It's a see you again someday, in the long distant future when they're old and done with the worlds of life.

\--

There is a nervous thrumming in the air. Natsu feels it from the very second he wakes up that morning, and it persists all the way to the Guild. Even Happy feels it, he's sure, because he's not rambling about fish, or anything at all. Not even about how much he misses Lucy, and Natsu misses her, too. He misses her so much, but he can't wait for her to come home again, like he knows she will eventually. 

It's Lucy, she belongs with Fairy Tail, and she knows it. She'll come back to them the second she can, and if she can't, they'll bring her home. 

They've found a way, they've just got to make it work. He knows they will, Levy and Freed are working on figuring out the book, and they've got help from all the others. Everyone keeps taking short missions so that they'll be there to welcome her home.

It's impossible to sit still while they start the spell, runes making walls in between them for where they're trying to bring her out of the book she'd probably fallen in. He's not sure about the specifics, he just knows they'd promised to bring her back without following her, so they're bringing her back, except it's not Natsu or Gray or Erza doing it, but Fairy Tail. It shouldn't be a surprise, either, it's always been all of Fairy Tail whenever Lucy gets into trouble. 

It's impossible to keep a missing Lucy a secret when she's always so bright and shiny and there. 

He taps his foot impatiently, but regrets it when they falter and the spell cracks and a thud sounds, but there's nothing there and the book hasn't moved. 

Natsu cracks, too, and he lungs at the book, but he's apparently not the only one with the idea, because it's already opening by the time he reaches it, and his hand is not the only one to be placed on the pages. A whole bunch of them are, hands covering every inch of paper, people behind them fighting to reach, too. 

They're going to get Lucy home, they grin at each other, as they all disappear together.

\--

They're all separated and he's not supposed to be here, exactly, he's not supposed to choose this before everything else, but he's also choosing to trust his family to take care of things until he can join them. He's gotta do his best to win this thing, the prize shouldn't be allowed in the hands of anyone else, it's important. It's got something important on it that he knows is precious-- was precious to someone he knew, once.

Luffy panics as he realizes he's not supposed to give out his name, he's gotta be a mystery, so when he's gotten as far as Lu--, he blurts out Lucy instead of Luffy and the image of a bright, happy blonde grinning at him flashes through his mind. He almost falters but catches himself and promises silently that he's gonna win this. 

For Lucy.

\--

Sabo wanders the edges, searching for the two men that had been with her at her very last. 

He's been looking high and low, there's been newspapers and rumors and everything in between, and it's his position in the Revolution that lets him get all the information he keeps searching for, which is why he is here and now, looking for the one that's been easiest to find this time. 

He's searching for the Strawhat Captain, the boy that had held her in his arms as she died in front of the whole world, the Whitebeard Commander has proven a bit more elusive to track but he's sure he'll find him, eventually, too. Maybe they'll even be close by each other here, because after the loss of someone so bright like her, he can't imagine they'd allow each other into too dangerous situations without being nearby to help. 

He's got to know what she told them before she went, he's got to know her last words so that he can honor the friend he'd made all that time ago. 

He's gonna live by Lucy's words.

\--

Ace burns as brightly as he dares to, hidden as he's been trying to stay. He's capable of staying under the radar for some time, but eventually he keeps getting sighted. He's gotten better at it, though, he's had to be what with the Marines hunting him almost furiously, every possible sighting of him taken seriously. 

It's a good thing he's got friends in high places, willing to hide some of them, still out there and helping him abide by her wish. 

He flies to the hut he's been using the last few days, grabbing the snail ringing and waiting for the news he's been expecting. 

"He's at Dressrosa."

He hangs up without a word, packing what little he cares to bring with him, and then he's out of there faster and brighter than he'd ever been. 

He'd promised Lucy, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to continue this, I think. I'm putting it as complete right now because I've been trying to get this out for an entire month but every time I thought it was ready, I thought of something else that should be in there. 
> 
> This is a little jumpy between her first day with Sabo (imagine they spent weeks together) and her being with Luffy and being introduced to Ace (also imagine she's been with them since just after they entered the Grand Line like with Crocus or something, not sure where I wanted her to meet Luffy first), sorry about that, but I didn't want to spoil the nice thoughts and ideas anyone might have by putting some halfhearted parts down and wait even longer to post this. If anyone wants to write any parts that are missing, I'd love to read whatever pops up.
> 
> Also, at the end there, the thing Luffy's trying to win has something to do with Fairy Tail. I hadn't thought any specifics, but I imagined the same book that brought them all there but this one holds the Fairy Tail mark on the front, which is why he wants it. I figure they're using it as bait because everyone got to see her mark on her hand when she died on the screen in front of everyone (Buggy and his supporters keeping the snails active). It's basically their way home.


End file.
